A Presidential Candidate We Can Believe In

His policy statements are vague, he’s got no experience and I’m about 80% sure he’s still on drugs, but damned if he isn’t a likeable scamp who can belt out a good tune, so I’d consider tossing the man a vote.

It’s time for America to drink from the hose once again (and barbecue on Tuesdays).

I suppose the best way to describe myself would be to say that I have a problem with authority. I’ve always disliked when people told me what to do, even as a young child, and I’ve always preferred to find my own path through life and make my own decisions, even if it occasionally went against the conventional wisdom and sometimes worked to my short-term disadvantage. My dad said I inherited it from him, but that I’ve taken it to a whole new level. When I was young I wanted to be a journalist, until I got to college and realized that journalism was less about the search for objective truth than it was about writing the stories that best suited your employer’s interests, whether they were true or not (which didn’t sit well with me at all). So I drifted aimlessly through a couple of years of college as an indifferent (often drunk) student, unsure of what to do with myself until one of my fraternity brothers gave me a copy of “The Fountainhead” and I got hooked on the ideas that success and a refusal to conform to societal standards were not mutally exclusive, and that the greatest evil in the world was society and government’s failure to recognize or accept individuality and individual freedom as a strength, not a weakness. So I threw myself into studying politics and history, worked in a few political campaigns after college, had some success, and thought about doing a career in politics until I realized that most of the people I knew who had never had a career outside of politics had no comprehension of how the real world actually worked and tended to make a lot of bad, self-absorbed decisions that rarely helped the people they claimed to be representing.

That didn’t sit well with me either, so I decided to put any thoughts of going into politics on hold until I’d actually had a life and possibly a real career, and I spent the next couple of years drifting between a series of random yet educational jobs (debt collector, deliveryman, computer salesman, repo man, dairy worker) that taught me the value of hard work, personal responsibility and the financial benefits of dining at Taco John’s on Tuesday nights (2 tacos for a buck) when money got tight.

After awhile, however, the desire to see the world (and the need for a more consistent and slightly larger paycheck) convinced me to join the Army, where I spent ten years traveling around the world on the government dime working as an intelligence analyst. I generally enjoyed my time in the military, despite the aforementioned problem with authority (which wasn’t as much of an issue in the military as many people might think it would be), and I got to see that the decisions our political leaders make were sometimes frivolous, often ill-informed, and always had unforeseen repercussions down the road…especially on the soldiers tasked with implementing those decisions. I was fortunate enough to spend most of my 10 years in the military doing jobs I enjoyed, traveling to countries that I always wanted to see (Scotland is the greatest place in the world to hang out, Afghanistan is very underrated) and working with people I liked and respected, until I finally decided that at 35 it was time to move into a job where I didn’t have the threat of relocation lying over my head every two or three years, where I didn’t have to worry about my friends being blown up, and where I didn’t have to work in any capacity for George W. Bush.

I work now for a financial company in Kansas where I’m responsible for overseeing, pricing and maintaining farms, commercial and residential properties, mineral assets, insurance policies, annuities, etc. In my spare time I like to read books on economics, history, and politics (I’m preparing to tackle Murray Rothbard’s “Man, Economy & State” and Von Mises’ “Human Action”…should take me about a year at the rate I’m currently finishing books), watch movies, and destroy posers on “Halo 3” (where I’m signed in under “UCrawford” for anyone interested in taking a shot at me some time). I used to play rugby until age, inconsistent conditioning, and a string of gradually worsening injuries finally convinced me to quit. I’m a rabid fan of the Kansas Jayhawks in general and their basketball and football programs in particular and I’m also a devoted fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. I’m also fond of going online and debating/picking fights with people on the merits of the philosophy of individual freedom…sometimes to the point of being an asshole (but hopefully a reasonably well-informed asshole). I’ve been a big fan of The Liberty Papers ever since finding it online, I respect the body of work they’ve put out, and I’m honored that Brad Warbiany invited me to join his jolly band of freedom fighters. So cheers, Brad, and to everyone else I look forward to reaching consensus or locking horns with you in the near future.

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Ben

Why does a website with 14 contributors average one post every day or two? You guys always post good stuff, just not enough. The readers want more.

http://dangerouslyidealistic.blogspot.com/ UCrawford

Ben,

Why does a website with 14 contributors average one post every day or two?

Because we’ve all got jobs…except, I’ve long suspected, for Doug :)

The readers want more.

The Paulestinians would probably argue that point, but much appreciated. Of course they keep coming back here to throw their two cents in despite the abuse we occasionally heap on them, so I guess in a perverse sort of way they enjoy the work we do as well :)

http://dangerouslyidealistic.blogspot.com/ UCrawford

And right as I say that, Doug puts out a very good piece about free speech :)

oilnwater

the only abuse at play on this forum is the self-abuse you employ towards your character and your intellectual honesty. none of that has anything to do with Paul, paulestinians, or any other buzzword that you need in order to keep your bearings in your hollow mindset.

http://dangerouslyidealistic.blogspot.com/ UCrawford

oilnwater,

the only abuse at play on this forum is the self-abuse you employ towards your character and your intellectual honesty. none of that has anything to do with Paul, paulestinians, or any other buzzword that you need in order to keep your bearings in your hollow mindset.

My child, you have come to me my son. For who now is your father if it is not me? I am the well spring, from which you flow. When I am gone, you will have never been. What would your world be, without me?

oilnwater

better.

http://dangerouslyidealistic.blogspot.com/ UCrawford

Oilnwater hereby forfeits all cool points for failing to recognize a direct quote from one of the greatest movies ever made.

Not that he’s forfeiting all that much :)

Benjamin Kuipers

While men like UCrawford are almost entirely bereft of intellectual honesty and principle on several key issues, and who along with several of other editors here are atrociously at odds with their purported classical liberal forebearers, the tenor of conversation on a good many issues is slightly above the mean.

UCrawford

Gotta love those Paulestinians…writing in to whine about intellectual honesty on a joke article about electing Dave Grohl as president. Apparently being an avid supporter of Fuhrer Paul requires a humorectomy and an inability to read for comprehension. What a laugh riot your meet-up groups must have been. :)

http://poppychop.net/ Nitroadict

I’m throughly surprised at the amount of whining & bitching that goes on, and yet, no one stopped to think:

“Wow, If i did this all on a blog of my own, instead of providing rhetorical, linguistic masturbation on a blog I supposedly “hate”, I could possibly further the debate by providing competing view points and blog posts of my own and other people that agree with me. I could even come up with a neat little logo, and hire neat writers, and somehow eventually come face to face with other commentators that did what I used to.

With a brand, pride of my own, and loyal followers, I could certainly deflect criticisms of my and other people on my blog’s viewpoints with the deft ability of Superman leaping over buildings in a single bound! If the ARI somehow manages, then by golly, so could I; I mean, so could “we”! Oh, the fun would never end!”

In other news, Vaudeville is still dead. But some of you Paul followers can still make it, you just gotta have a gimmick! Don’t let those talking pictures fool ya!